Search results

Title: Section of the fire plug used in Philadelphia
Description: Three sectional views of the fire plug showing an external view and views in the open and shut position at the "Ordinary Level of Pavement." Below is an explanation of the diagram signed Frederic Graff, Superintendent of Fairmount Waterworks, dated January 15, 1854. Explanation contains instructions on how to close and open the plug and mentions handling procedures for firemen. Procedures include "The Firemen are respectfully requested to screw the plug hard shut when they have finished using it that there may be no leakage through the valve D" and if frozen, "For the purpose of freeing this the firemen are recommended to carry in their lockers during winter a strong wench with a handle two and one half feet long.", Not in Wainwright., Key to parts of the plug printed below the image: A. is the Screw handle. B." " Frost rod. C. " " Frost pipe or waste. D. " " Plug valve. E. " " Valve rod. F. " " Plug case outside. G. " " Plug nut., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 207
Creator: Rease & Schell, artist
Date: [1854]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **BW - Machinery [P.8970.19]

Title: H. Thompson, plumber & gas fitter, no. 1110 Germantown Road & Second St., Philadelphia Pumps, vitriol and chemical apparatus, hydrants, baths, bath boilers, lead & copper, pipe of best quality. Stores, dwellings, churches and factories fitted up for gas & water in the best manner, and the most reasonable terms
Description: Trade card containing vignettes depicting a hydrant and gas lamp chandelier. Also includes a border designed with ornate cornices., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
Date: [ca. 1865]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Specimens Album [P.9349.139i]

Title: Two of the killers
Description: View showing two outlandishly-attired members of the Philadelphia gang known as the "Killers" carousing on the street. One sits on a fire hydrant and the other leans against a lamp pole (posted with a "Sale" notice") at a street tenanted by a "Grocery" and adorned with broadsides. The men wear patterned pants, jackets with tails, oversized neck ties, and top hats. One also wears a pin adorned "K." They each have their hands in their pockets and smoke cigarettes. The grocery displays a barrel of brooms in addition to signs reading "Coffee Sugar Tea" and "Teas Coffee 5." The broadsides adorning the opposite building advertise "Auction this Evening" and "Circus The Old Man of the Mountain..... Dan Rice Clown." The playbill is illustrated with a scene of an equestrian trick. The "Killers," organized circa 1846, were a band of young men who menaced the Moyamensing neighborhood and were associated with the Moyamensing Hose Company and the Democratic Keystone Club., Date from Poulson inscription on recto: 1848., Wainwright suggests date of circa 1855., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 761, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., Reproduced in Edwin Wolf's Philadelphia: Portrait of American city (Published by Camino Books in cooperation the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1990), page 199.
Date: [1848]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *W408 [P.2219]

Title: Fire Association of Philadelphia Insure from loss by fire buildings. Furniture and merchandise generally
Description: Tradecard containing a view of the Fairmount Waterworks. View looking from the west bank of the Schuylkill River showing the waterworks originally built between 1812 and 1822 after the designs of Frederick Graff. Shows the engine house, mill house, mound dam, and Reservoir Hill. Also shows individuals fishing from and on a boat near the Schuylkill Canal lock in the foreground. Also contains the pictorial detail of a running hose entwined around a fire hydrant., Names of Trenton and Plainfield, N.J. agents stamped in blue ink on recto., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 251, Smithsonian Institution: NMAH Archives Center - Warshaw Collection - Fires & Firefighting - Box 2 Folder 23 - Fire Association
Creator: Major & Knapp Engraving, Manufacturing & Lithographic Co.
Date: [ca. 1868]
Location: Smithsonian Institution | NMAH Archives Center Warshaw Collection SI NMAH Archives Center - Warshaw Collection - Fires & Firefighting - Box 2 Folder 23 - Fire Association

Title: Maryland State Building.
Description: Exterior view of building with a wooden walkway and fire hydrant in foreground. Several men sit on porch and stand in entrance to the building.
Creator: Centennial Photographic Co., photographer., creator
Date: 1876
Location: Centennial album [P.8965.9b]

Title: Abbott & Lawrence. Liberty Stove Works, Brown Street above Fourth St. Philada James J. Abbott. Archilus Lawrence
Description: Advertisement showing the stove works founded in 1851 on the 400 block of Brown Street in Northern Liberties. Works include a four-story building containing the "office" and adorned with a cupola, a large work yard, and a rear "Foundry." At the multi-story building, a laborer loads stoves that are lined on the sidewalk into a horse-drawn wagon under the eye of a man at the doorway. On the roof, two other men stand in the cupola that is adorned with a statue of Liberty. In the adjacent work yard, laborers shovel and pick at mounds of coal and bricks, and load and transport hand- and horse-drawn carts on the grounds and up a ramp leading to an opening in the foundry. Near the workers, a group of men, one leaning on a shovel convenes and two boys chase each other over a mound. On the sidewalk, men, women, and children pedestrians stroll past a street lamp, watch the workers, and converse near a dog sniffing a fire hydrant. In the street, drivers guide horse-drawn carts, a drayman travels, and a pedestrian crosses in the path of an "Abbott & Lawrence Liberty stove Works" wagon and speeding carriage occupied by a family of three. Street activity also includes a man on horse back, two dogs in a greeting stance, and two gentlemen engaged in conversation. The firm was reestablished as Abbott & Noble in 1858, and operated until 1915 under various proprietors., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 7, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited.
Creator: Kollner, Augustus, b. 1813
Date: [ca. 1852]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **W11 [P.2002]

Title: [Hartley & Knight's bedding warehouse, 148 South Second Street, Philadelphia]
Description: Advertisement showing the cluttered-looking three-story storefront of the bedding warehouse on the 200 block of South Second Street. A clerk, possibly one of the proprietors, stands at the main entrance to his store and points to a disheveled display of mattresses, one of many. Behind him, a couple enters the wareroom in which two women work in a backroom. The couple walks under a framed figure of a goose hanging above the doorway. Shelves of mattresses line the walls and rolled mattresses fill the large open display windows. In the upper floor windows, mattresses and bedding are propped out of windows and piles of feathers are visible. In front of the store, a mattress on a bed frame, a bed frame, and bedding on a cot is on display; a clerk loads bedding onto a horse-drawn cart; and a gentleman walks past a fire hydrant on the sidewalk. Also shows partial views of adjacent buildings. Partners Joseph Hartley and Reeve L. Knight relocated to this address circa 1842 and remained in a partnership until 1854., Title supplied by cataloguer., Date from Poulson inscription on recto: South Second street. Augt. 1846, Philadelphia on Stone, POS 345, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., LCP copy trimmed and lacking imprint.
Date: [August 1846]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *W170 [P.2064]

Title: [T. Sharpless & Sons, wholesale ware room, clothes, cassimeres, merinoes, silks and vestings and Pekin Tea Company, South Second Street and Trotter's Alley, Philadelphia]
Description: Advertisement showing the four-story double storefronts adorned with signage at 30-32 South Second Street, below Market Street. Massive merchandise displays adorn the windows and front facades of the businesses. At the wareroom, reams of different cloths hang within open windows from rods behind tables covered in swatches and bolts of cloth. A number of patrons, including women and a couple, admire the displays, and enter the open entry through which shadowy figures of female clerks are visible. More merchandise, including bolts of cloth and cloth-covered hat boxes, are visible in showcase spaces on the second floor. At the tea store, couples exit and enter the business in which several boxes of tea are piled between Chinese figurines displayed in the window. A clerk stands within the store. Potted plants adorn the third floor windows between which a large model of a box of tea hangs. In front of the store, boxes of tea are piled under a frame for an awning that displays a sign advertising "Fresh Teas." Manhole covers and a fire hydrant adorn the sidewalk as well. Around the corner of the building, a woman and girl walk past a horse-drawn dray travelling down a side alley to Strawberry Street partially visible in the background. Also shows partial views of adjacent buildings. Pekin Tea Company relocated to Sixth and Callowhill streets in 1847. The textile firm established by Townsend Sharpless in 1815 located to the address in 1841 under the name T. Sharpless & Son. Firm was renamed T. Sharpless & Sons in 1842., Title supplied by cataloger., Date from Poulson inscriptions on recto: Strawberry. So. Second St. & Trotter's Alley. Sept. 1846. "Strawberry" written in image to identify street., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 736, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., See related advertisement print, *W278 [P.2168]
Creator: Reynolds, Robert F., artist
Date: [September 1846]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *W358 [P.2198]

Title: American Hotel. Henry A. Charter. Chestnut Street, opposite the State House Philadelphia
Description: Advertisement showing the five-story hotel built by John L. Ridgway in 1844 at 181-183 (i.e., 517-519) Chestnut Street. Male and female guests sit under an awning on the front porch, enter the building, and stroll on the second floor balcony. Other patrons are visible, through the open windows and entrance, in the saloon and at the front desk. Curtains adorn several of the upper windows and rolled carpets are showcased in the display windows of the tenanting business of "J. & B. Orne." A couple approach the entrance of the adjacent storefront of "J. Sill & Co. Gloves. Hosiery. Cravats. Shirts. etc." at 185 (i.e., 521) Chestnut Street. Hosiery and bolts of fabric adorn the display windows of the building that also contains columns and a balcony. Also shows a dog behind the couple, a fire hydrant, and a partial view of a parked carriage and neighboring building. Charter, originally with partner C. James McClellan, served as the proprietor 1845-1848., Date from Poulson inscription on recto., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 17, Wainwright retrospective conversion project, edited., Opening of hotel described in the Philadelphia Inquirer, January 20, 1844.
Creator: Rease, W. H., artist
Date: [1848]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **W16 [P.2012]

Main menu